ShoeGuy: Still Changing After All These Years

Running shoes' evolution goes on, and so do their wearers

In 1978 Nike rolled out the first "Air" shoe, the Tailwind. The pressurized gas balloon inside the thick polyurethane midsole was touted as the answer to all shock-related issues caused by running. It was indeed very soft, quite lively, and very comfortable. And it was pretty much a commercial flop.

Runners balked at the weight and stiffness, but mostly at the hefty $50 price tag. Quite a jump when a good pair of dependable trainers could be easily found for about half as much.

But Nike, demonstrating a stubborn nature that has defined the company’s innovative drive ever since, wouldn’t give up. Other Air shoes followed, but it wasn’t until the early ‘80s that heads were really turned, and millions of feet followed, with the original Pegasus. Rather than the bulky full-length Air unit of its predecessors, the Pegasus had only an Air wedge in the heel that cushioned nicely, but with less weight, more flexibility, and at a much lower price. Suddenly, midsole cushioning technologies mattered.

Next came ASICS Gel in 1985, first appearing in the great granddaddy of today’s GT-2120, the GT-II. Gel was quickly followed by Brooks Hydroflow, Saucony GRID, and others, making the ‘80s the decade of midsole cushioning technology.

Early on, however, someone figured out that cushioning was not the answer to all running evils, and the medial post emerged. It’s that hard chunk of material under the medial heel and arch that acts as a firewall against the ravages of excessive pronation.

While some may debate which shoe company was first with the medial post, few will argue that the first really significant example was in the Brooks Chariot in 1981. It was for years the statement shoe in what became known as the "motion-control" category. The Chariot evolved into the Brooks Beast, and became a favorite of podiatrists who were seeing more and more motion-related running injuries. The Beast made the ‘90s the decade of stability.

So if every decade has to be the decade of something, here we are in the decade of fit. Not just the shoe fitting the foot, but fitting also the foot strike, that is, what part of the foot strikes the ground first, what part leaves the ground last, and what happens in between. Those intriguing contoured grooves throughout the midsole and outsole of today’s running shoes are more than just pretty designs; they are engineered to react to the foot on the run to make the inefficient more efficient, and to leave the efficient alone.

It’s been a very long run since 1977, for RT, for the runners who read it, and of course, for the running shoes they wear. Lots of good changes have happened in all of us, with more to come. Thirty years is not just a lot of running shoes, it’s a lot of everything.